Floating-Top Table Creative Joinery Adds Spark to This Versatile Piece

Floating-Top Table Creative joinery adds spark to this versatile piece

By Michael Pekovich

W263PE.indd 28 6/27/17 3:53 PM his is one of those projects that almost wasn’t. Rachel, my wife, had asked for a small, por- Quick bridle joint at the bandsaw Ttable table for her sewing machine. My first thought was to make something quick—just legs, aprons, and a top—so I could move on to something “more important.” Fortunately, I stopped and took a Start with the minute to think about how I could make this table a slot. Scribe the little more interesting to build and a little more enjoy- baseline of the slot, then cut the sides able to use. The result is a unique little table with a at the bandsaw. quiet personality that brightens our home every day. Set the fence for While Rachel puts it to use most often as a sewing one face, then flip table, it serves very well as a side table, a small writ- the stock to cut the ing desk, or even a TV tray. opposite face. Building the table is straightforward, though the joinery is a little unusual. There are some bridle joints and through-tenons, all of which are left proud of the surface. Drawbore pins pull everything together for a clamp-free glue-up. If you’d like, you can leave out the

Drill out the waste and square the 1 end. Use a ⁄2-in. Forstner bit to drill a hole at the baseline, which frees most of the waste (right). Then square the base of the slot with a chisel (far right). Chop halfway, then rotate the stock to finish squaring from the opposite face.

glue altogether. Arched rails and a beveled tabletop add lift, but the table remains a stout little thing.

Begin with the base I used white oak for the table, but I stayed away from Then cut the the dramatic ray fleck of quartersawn oak on the base, tenon to fit. instead turning to the quieter straight grain of riftsawn Establish the stock. It helps to reinforce the simple lines of the base. shoulders at the Start by milling the stock and cutting the parts to tablesaw, then cut final length. Leave the curved rails square for now to the tenon cheeks make cutting the joinery easier. at the bandsaw, using test pieces The legs are connected to the front and back rails to set the fence with a bridle joint and that’s a good place to start. precisely. A sharp I normally turn to the tablesaw and tenoning jig to blade and a slow slot the legs, but when making the original, I worked feed rate should quickly and intuitively at the bandsaw. That’s the tech- yield a glue-quality nique I’ll show you here. Set the fence to one face surface right off the of the slot, and make the first cut. Then flip the leg machine. for the second cut to ensure a centered slot. For a smooth, accurate cut, make sure your blade is sharp

Photo, opposite: Michael Pekovich September/OctO ber 2017 29

W263PE.indd 29 6/27/17 3:54 PM 3 WHITE OAK SIDE TABLE Dovetail slot, ⁄4 in. 3 7 wide by ⁄16 in. deep Top halves, ⁄8 in. 1 by 5 ⁄2 in. long thick by 7 in. wide by 26 in. long

5° bevel

1 Spline, ⁄4 in. 1 thick by 1 ⁄2 in. wide 7 Support, ⁄8 in. thick 1 4 11 Groove, ⁄ in. wide by 2 ⁄16 in. wide by 3 4 3 by ⁄ in. deep Front and rear rails, 12 ⁄8 in. long 7 9 ⁄8 in. thick by 2 ⁄16 in. 5 5 wide by 23 ⁄8 in. long Dovetail key, ⁄32 in. Tenon, 3 15 thick by ⁄4 in. wide ⁄16 in. long by 10 in. long

Angle top of leg to 1 ⁄8-in.-deep match arch recess for cord of rail. 1 Cove, ⁄2-in. radius 1 Slot, ⁄2 in. wide 15 by 1 ⁄16 in. long

Through-mortise, 9 ⁄16 in. square

5 3 ⁄8 in. Pins, 1 ⁄4 in. dia., Tenon, centered 9 16 on tenons 1 ⁄ in. long 7 Side rail, ⁄8 in. 1 Leg, 1 ⁄2 in. thick by 2 in. square by 26 in. wide by 13 in. long 4 mm hemp rope, long turkeyfootllc.com Through-mortise, 1 ⁄2 in. wide by 1 1 ⁄2 in. long Tenon, 1 ⁄2 in. thick by 7 1 ⁄8 in. wide by To purchase expanded plans and a 13 1 ⁄16 in. long, cutlist for this Hall Table in White end beveled 5° Oak and other projects, go to FineWoodworking.com/PlanStore.

1 3 ⁄4 in. 2 in. 26 in. 14 in.

Gap between rail 5 5 ⁄16 in. and top, ⁄16 in.

1 3 ⁄8-in. 27 ⁄8 in. 26 in. 1 shoulder 1 ⁄2 in. 1 3 4 ⁄4 in. 1 ⁄4 in.

7 20 in. 9 ⁄8 in.

1 ⁄2 in. 3 7 ⁄8 in. 23 in. 12 ⁄8 in. 1 7 ⁄8-in. 9 ⁄8 in. shoulder

30 FINE WOODWORKING Photos, except where noted: Rachel Barclay; drawings: John Hartman

W263PE.indd 30 6/29/17 2:00 PM Drawbore pins lock the joints

By offsetting the tenon peg hole slightly toward the shoulder, the mortised joint will be drawn tight as the peg is driven in.

Tenon hole is offset.

1⁄32 in.

Mark the offset. For the mortise-and-tenon Locate the center. After drilling through the joints, offset the hole toward the shoulder of the slots and mortises in the legs, dry-fit the joint joint (left). This will pull the joint closed when the and use a drill bit to mark the center of the pin is driven in. Then drill the tenon using a scrap hole on the tenons. underneath to prevent blowout (above).

and aligned to the rip fence. Also, it helps to go slow. If it’s done correctly, you should end up with a surface almost as smooth as a cut from a tablesaw. Drill out most of the waste using a 1⁄2-in.-dia. Forstner bit, which matches the slot width. Then square the slot with a chisel, working in from each face. Undercutting the Angled approach joint in the center guarantees that there won’t be any for the bridle material to keep the tenon from fully seating in the slot. joints. This joint needs to be pulled To make the tenons, first make the shoulder cuts at together in two the tablesaw. Then head back to the bandsaw to cut directions, so offset the cheeks. Use a test piece to sneak up on a snug fit. the holes slightly in When making fine adjustments to the bandsaw fence, toward the shoulder be sure to cut off the end of the test piece to prevent and up from the the blade from wandering into the previous cut and bottom edge of the giving you a false reading. tenon. With the bridle joints complete, turn to the through- mortise-and-tenons that connect the side rails to the legs. This completes the leg joinery and allows the base to be dry-fitted, which is necessary to determine

Photos, except where noted: Rachel Barclay; drawings: John Hartman SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 31

W263PE.indd 31 6/27/17 3:55 PM the shoulder length of the tabletop supports. To do that, you’ll first Add the tabletop supports have to drill for the drawbore pins that hold everything together.

Lay out the mortises and tenons at the same time. Tape the mortise areas on the rails as well as the tenon ends on the supports. Then use a marking gauge to scribe the top and bottom edges of the mortises on both faces of the rails (right). Mark the tenons using the same gauge settings (far right).

Cut the joinery. Use a backsaw to cut the tenon sides. Remove the waste by sawing along the baseline and clean up with a chisel. Drill out most of the waste from the mortises and square the recesses with a chisel (bottom). Work in from each face to avoid cutting past the scribe lines.

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W263PE.indd 32 6/27/17 3:56 PM the shoulder length of the tabletop supports. To do that, you’ll first have to drill for the drawbore pins that hold everything together. Side rails get a rope handle

Drawbore pins pull it together; rails give it a lift The bridle joint is a difficult joint to clamp because it must be pulled together in two directions. The protruding ends of the parts only complicate the situation. So I turn to drawbore pins, which pull the joint together as they are driven in. I used the technique for the side rail mortise-and-tenons as well. The trick is to drill slightly offset holes through the parts. For the mortise-and-tenons, offset the mark roughly 1⁄32 in. toward the shoulder of the tenon. For the bridle joint, which needs to be clamped both across the joint and down, offset the hole at a 45° angle. This way, the joint is pulled in both directions as the pin is driven in. I use a dowel plate to make the pins, starting with straight-grained stock to keep the pins from breaking under the stress of pulling the joint together. With the base dry-fitted, measure between the front and back rails to determine the shoulder-to-shoulder length of the sup- Get a handle on it. The side rails are wrapped with hemp cord, port rails. Start by cutting the tenon cheeks, sneaking up on the essentially transforming them into handles for lifting the table. The Tie up loose handle area of the rail is recessed for the cord at the tablesaw (top right). ends. Prefinish Pekovich mounts stop blocks on the crosscut sled fence and slides the the rail before rail from side to side while slowly advancing the sled. The recesses on adding the cord. the top and bottom are cut at the bandsaw. Start by making a few wraps over the end of the cord to shoulder inset until the rail fits snugly in the dry-fitted base. Now secure it in place you can continue with the rest of the joinery. (1). Make sure the The supports are wider than the rails, so register the layout from end is on the inside the bottom edges of the parts. Use a marking gauge to scribe the face of the rail, and trim it after four or top and bottom edges of the mortises as well as the tenons, using five wraps. As you the same settings to ensure a gap-free fit. One thing to keep in near the opposite mind when laying out those joints is that an arch will eventually 1 end, insert a loop be cut in the rails. So center the mortise on the finished profile, of wire under the rather than on the square blank. Drill and chop the waste from cord for the last the mortises and use a handsaw to cut the tenon ends. few wraps (2). Trim the end of the cord, leaving an extra Shaping brings the table to life 2 in., and feed it Once the joinery is complete, cut the parts to final shape. I cut through the wire the arches in the rails using a steady hand at the bandsaw and loop. Use a pair of a quick cleanup with a spokeshave. pliers to pull the Trim the tops of the legs to match the arch, and cove the ends of loop under the the supports that extend above the rails. The last step is to angle wraps to secure the the ends of the front and rear rail tenons. This slight flair acts as cord (3). Trim off the end between a small corbel and complements the underbevel on the tabletop. the wraps with a It’s a subtle detail, but on a quiet piece like this, it has a big effect. 2 sharp knife. I prefinish the parts with shellac before glue-up. I also take the time to wrap the cord handles at this point. It’s much easier now 3 than when everything is together. Online Extra To see a simple way to add A unique tabletop cord to a project, go to On the original table, I simply glued up a top and attached it FineWoodworking.com/263. with screws to the supports. That’s a perfectly good solution, but I tried a little different approach this time around. I made the top in halves and joined them to the supports with a dovetailed cleat. Each half has a stopped dovetail slot that slides along the cleat. To keep the halves aligned, I grooved each half where they meet for a full-length spline. Rather than glue the halves together, I pinned them through the spline on both sides of the joint. A light chamfer along the joint highlights the pair of boards.

Photos: www.finewoodworking.com SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 33

W263PE.indd 33 6/30/17 1:22 PM A two-part tabletop

Make way for a spline and dovetail keys. Start by ripping a groove along the inside edge of each half (above). Then clamp a half to the base and mark for the dovetail socket locations (right).

After cutting the spline grooves, clamp the top halves together and rout the dovetail slots at the same time to ensure that they are aligned. With the mating edges facing out, use a two-sided fence to guide the router. This lets you rout safely in from each end, stopping short of the center. Use the same dovetail bit to make the keys at the router table. Rout the profile along the edge of a wide piece of stock. This keeps your fingers away from the bit and makes for less stressful routing. Dial in the width of the key by moving the router fence. Once you get a nice, tight fit, rip the keys off the strip. To attach the keys, slide them into one of the tabletop halves, and clamp it in place. Then drill and screw the keys to the supports every 3 in. or so. Cut a slight underbevel on the edges of the top, and use a block plane to run a light chamfer along the center joint. Rather than trying to hide the fact that there are two boards, a small shadowline highlights the joint and hides any offset that may occur in the future. For final assembly, slide the halves onto the cleats, inserting the spline between Rout the dovetail sockets. Clamp them, and clamp them lightly together. the top halves together with the Then drill through the top and spline on mating edges facing out. Use a either side of the joint near each end of the two-sided edge guide and rout in from each outside edge (above). Set top. Drive in pins to lock the top in place the depth of cut to leave enough without glue. That’s one rather involved material above the spline groove way to avoid squeeze-out! □ (right). Michael Pekovich is a furniture maker, instructor, and FWW’s executive art director.

34 FINE WOODWORKING

W263PE.indd 34 6/27/17 3:55 PM Make the dovetail keys. Using the same dovetail bit, rout a dovetail profile on the edges of the key stock (left). Dial in the fit by adjusting the router table fence until the key fits snugly in the slot (center). Finally rip the keys off the stock (right) and plane for a final fit. The finished keys should slide easily in the slot because they can be adjusted for a tighter fit later during assembly.

AdjustAble dovetAil key

Mill the key Adjust the thinner than screw to the slot depth. tighten or loosen the fit of the key in the slot.

Installing the top. Clamp one half to the base, slide the keys into place, and screw them to the support rails (above). Tighten or loosen the screws to adjust the fit. Remove the first half to drive the remaining screws, then replace it, insert the spline, and slide the second half of the top in place. Clamp them lightly together and drill and drive in pins through the spline to secure the top (right).

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W263PE.indd 35 6/28/17 9:13 AM